Alex Lewis, the Liberal Democrats’ candidate for the Higham Hill by-election, sits down with the Echo to discuss why voters should pick him to represent the Walthamstow ward
Interview by Josh Mellor, Local Democracy Reporter
The Lib Dem’s candidate in the upcoming Higham Hill elections says he would be a “highly active” councillor because he lives in the ward.
Father-of-two Alex Lewis’ local connection meant he was the party’s obvious choice when deciding who would stand for them in the by-election on 26th October.
He called the former Labour councillor Alistair Strathern a “cheeky so and so” for campaigning to be an MP in Mid-Bedfordshire without resigning from his Waltham Forest seat.
“I believe my Labour opponent is from Leyton, I would struggle [to be a local councillor] if I didn’t live in Higham Hill,” he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).
Alex, who has a master’s in history and now works in medical claims, grew up in Wales and moved to London after finishing university.
Here’s what he said in a recent interview with the LDRS.
Why do you want to represent the people of Higham Hill?
I suppose mainly because it’s my area and I would like to see it look nicer as it’s a lovely area. The most active I can be is by becoming a councillor. I appreciate that I’m not taking the easy route; if I did I would join Labour.
Why are you the best person to do that job?
I know I’m not going to desert my post, I know that Alistair Strathern has gone for a more lucrative job, but when he became a candidate for Mid Bedfordshire, that’s when he should have resigned and moved up there. I appreciate he has done some work since then but he couldn’t be on the ground. My children live here, I’m a resident and I would be highly active.
I plan to stay here and be active here… we have this thing called “power hour” in the Liberal Democrats where we go out and knock on doors and pick up casework and everything. I would be able to do that more successfully as a councillor.
What can your party offer that is different to Labour?
I think the Liberal Democrats have got this focus now on being ultra-local which sounds a bit cliché but because not going to make inroads nationally… we focus on ultra-local issues. We have to fight to keep seats, that’s why we would be a more committed party. We would make sure it wouldn’t be just us doing work, it would be our colleagues. Because ultimately we want to grow our party.
What do the people of Higham Hill need that they aren’t currently getting from the current Labour councillors and administration?
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I believe my Labour opponent is from Leyton, I would struggle [to be a local councillor] if I didn’t live in Higham Hill; I walk the kids to school every day, it’s fixing the rubbish on the streets. You’re going to pick these things up much more just by being in the vicinity. It means being as focused as you can be rather than focusing on doing big-picture things.
There’s a sense that they don’t engage, there’s no one who comes and knocks on my door. I don’t see any presence as such, I don’t get literature about what they have been up to, I see them occasionally on the local Facebook group, if they are here they haven’t told us much about it… It feels like there’s a sense of inertia and they have got a super majority, so it feels a bit lax.
If elected you would be the sole member of your party in the Council. How will you make an impact on council policy?
It would send a strong message to Labour that they can’t take any seats for granted. Labour are going to decide policy and we can’t get them to change that, but I would do my best in the chamber to divert questions to things that I think matter more.
Stopping the cost of the [Edmonton] incinerator, I would be getting information out by doing surveys. I think by highlighting information about what’s happening in Higham Hill – it would be me saying that this is happening in Higham Hill and we want to do something about it.
What is the very first thing you would do as a councillor?
The first step would be pushing for repairs to fencing in Cheney Row Park and something about the rubbish that’s piled up, it’s a selfish priority but it’s a nice park.
What are the issues that people have been telling you about on the doorstep?
Rubbish, rubbish and crime. It’s an obvious one because there’s been stabbings here. My neighbour’s window was smashed through five to six weeks ago.
I don’t want to oppose more housing but unless we can secure more GPs, schools and health provisions more transport… unless you can send more 158 buses, then I don’t think we should be focusing on more houses…often you can’t get on the bus in the morning because it is so busy. I’m not opposed to more homes but you have to think about health.
What would you do that is markedly different from Labour?
I’d be on the ground. How can [Alistair Strathern] take council wages to do a job that he wasn’t on the ground for. How can he respond to the people of Higham Hill when he’s living in Shefford [Mid-Bedfordshire]? In September he said on social media he had lived there for “many months” – he’s a cheeky so-and-so.
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